The next day, Sunday, they went together religiously to hear one of the masses of the clear morning, in order to return to Etchezar the same day, immediately after the grand ball-game. It was this return, much more than the game, that interested Gracieuse and Ramuntcho, for it was their hope that Pantchika and her mother would remain at Erribiague while they would go, pressed against each other, in the very small carriage of the Detcharry family, under the indulgent and slight watchfulness¹ of Arrochkoa, five or six hours of travel, all three alone, on the spring roads, under the new foliage², with amusing halts in unknown villages—
 
At eleven o'clock in the morning, on that beautiful Sunday, the square was encumbered³ by mountaineers come from all the summits, from all the savage⁴, surrounding hamlets. It was an international match, three players of France against three of Spain, and, in the crowd of lookers-on, the Spanish Basques were more numerous; there were large sombreros, waistcoats and gaiters of the olden time.
 
The judges of the two nations, designated by chance, saluted⁵ each other with a superannuated⁶ politeness, and the match began, in profound silence, under an oppressive sun which annoyed the players, in spite of their caps, pulled down over their eyes.
 
Ramuntcho soon, and after him Arrochkoa, were acclaimed⁷ as victors. And people looked at the two little strangers, so attentive⁸, in the first row, so pretty also with their elegant pink waists, and people said: “They are the sweethearts of the two good players.” Then Gracieuse, who heard everything, felt proud of Ramuntcho.
 
Noon. They had been playing for almost an hour. The old wall, with its summit curved like a cupola, was cracking from dryness and from heat, under its paint of yellow ochre. The grand Pyrenean masses, nearer here than at Etchezar, more crushing and more high, dominated from everywhere these little, human groups, moving in a deep fold of their sides. And the sun fell straight on the heavy caps of the men, on the bare heads of the women, heating the brains, increasing enthusiasm. The passionate⁹ crowd yelled, and the pelotas were flying, when, softly, the angelus began to ring. Then an old man, all wrinkled, all burned, who was waiting for this signal, put his mouth to the clarion¹⁰—his old clarion of a Zouave in Africa—and rang the call to rest. And all, the women who were seated rose; all the caps fell, uncovering hair black, blonde or white, and the entire people made the sign of the cross, while the players, with chests and foreheads streaming with perspiration¹¹, stopped in the heat of the game and stood in meditation¹² with heads bent—
 
At two o'clock, the game having come to an end gloriously for the French, Arrochkoa and Ramuntcho went in their little wagon¹³, accompanied and acclaimed by all the young men of Erribiague; then Gracieuse sat between the two, and they started for their long, charming trip, their pockets full of the gold which they had earned, intoxicated¹⁴ by their joy, by the noise and by the sunlight.
 
And Ramuntcho, who retained the taste of yesterday's kiss, felt like shouting to them: “This little girl who is so pretty, as you see, is mine! Her lips are mine, I had them yesterday and will take them again to-night!”
 
They started and at once found silence again, in the shaded valleys bordered by foxglove and ferns—
 
To roll for hours on the small Pyrenean roads, to change places almost every day, to traverse the Basque country, to go from one village to another, called here by a festival, there by an adventure on the frontier—this was now Ramuntcho's life, the errant life which the ball-game made for him in the day-time and smuggling¹⁵ in the night-time.
 
Ascents¹⁶, descents, in the midst of a monotonous¹⁷ display of verdure. Woods of oaks and of beeches¹⁸, almost inviolate¹⁹, and rema............